Orange and French Football Federation Extend Partnership

Orange S.A., the French multinational telecommunications corporation formerly known as France Telecom S.A., and the French Football Federation (FFF) have extended their partnership an additional four years. The new agreement will run through 2026.

The initial 2018 agreement signed between the parties was valued at a reported €5.5 million (about $5.7 million US dollars) per annum. The extension’s value has not yet been publicly released; however, we can reasonably assume it will be at a minimum an equivalent level but likely much higher.

FFF digital and physical inventory, along with the training kits for the national team itself, will continue to have the Orange logo emblazoned on it.

A major theme of the refresher partnership will include education for emerging players:
• Cyberbullying
• Societal issues
• Environmental issues

The expectation is it will be a joint effort going forward between NGO (the Play International non-governmental organization) and FFF in conjunction with Orange.

Orange’s Chief Executive, Fabienne Dulac, commented at press time how proud he is to have built successfully upon the company’s 20+ year relationship with international football. Orange first took on a prominent role from 2002 to 2008 as the primary sponsor of Ligue 1.

Certainly, carrying a primary position on all national team garb and various FFF inventory were no brainers, although Orange sounds equally encouraged in taking a leading advocacy role for the sports’ youth.

Orange has controlled what is termed ‘title’ since the onset of its 2018 agreement though with FFF. That, effectively, granted it carte blanch rights to interface with both the men’s and women’s French national teams with respect to advertising on each’s paraphernalia and in virtually all related marketing efforts.

Orange estimates over 14,000 teams and two million amateur players exist nationwide, and that all stand to be affected in an impactful, positive manner.

Its reach is even more extensive when considering Orange has 89,000 employees in France and an additional 59,000 elsewhere globally to support its approximately 266 million total customers.

FFF has been in existence for over 100 years and functions as the de facto governing body of all football dealings in France.